The Master Chief is the protagonist in the Halo series of video games and novels.

Although his official military designation is Spartan-117, he is most often referred to as the Master Chief, presumably short for Master Chief Petty Officer, the highest enlisted rank in the United States Navy. The traditional rank of Master Chief is a purely administrative position, but the protagonist of Halo is more like an action hero. He is known to Covenant as the Demon.

According to Bungie Studios, The Master Chief stands 7' tall and weighs approximately 1,000 pounds in full battle armor. Between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, the Chief's armour is upgraded from MJOLNIR Mark V to Mark VI. The armour includes a helmet with reflective visor so the face of the Chief is never seen.

The character has been detailed in two video games, Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, and three novels, Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, and Halo: First Strike.

Character history

The Master Chief's childhood was spent in Elysium City, on the planet of Eridanus 2 where he lived with his family. His name was John and he was large for his age at the time, approximately a foot above his school peers, a sign of a "perfect genetic match" for a project dubbed "Spartan II".

At the age of six, John and quite a few other children his age were covertly captured from their houses, and replaced with flash clones. This specific form of clone was employed to ensure that none of the families knew that their children had been kidnapped, and to quickly die so that the parents would never seek their "lost" child. The original children were brought to planet Reach, the UNSC headquarters, to train to become Spartans. On Reach, the abducted children began intensive special training as part of the Spartan program, and were assigned new names. John became known as John-117.

The children were biologically modified and enhanced, undergoing the following procedures:

• Advanced carbide ceramic material grafted onto bones to increase durability
• Protein complex injections to increase muscle density and lower recovery time
• Body growth hormone pellet injections to boost skeletal and muscle tissue growth
• Occipital capillary reversal to increase bloodflow to the eyes, resulting in enhanced vision
• Superconducting fibers added to nerve endings, resulting in 300% increase in reflexes and increases in intelligence, memory, and creativity.

These procedures had substantial risks, and only 33 Spartans of the original 70 survived to functional status. Of the others, 12 suffered 'significant impairment' and were relegated to tactical duties. The rest died. John, during his time with the Spartans, was deemed the "luckiest" and was the first to test the MJOLNIR armor. He also took command of the trainees during free-form tactical exercises and was eventually made squad leader.

John-117's first mission was against rebels in the asteroid belt of the Eridanus System, where his homeworld was located. He was wounded but not incapacitated while leading his squad to capture Colonel Robert Watts, leader of the rebels.

Later on, he was briefed on the Covenant threat; he and his Spartans would fight for the next 30 years against this new threat.

Halo: Combat Evolved/The Flood

As humanity fought a losing war against the Covenant, the UNSC High Command developed a last-ditch plan to capture a Covenant starship. Before this mission could be into action, Reach, the staging ground for the operation, was attacked. The majority of the Spartans to be used in the mission were diverted to Reach's surface to defend groundside installations. The Master Chief was sent along with a few other spartans to destroy a small oni ship docked at a space station orbiting the planet so the ships navigation info, which could lead the covenant to earth, would not fall into enemy hands. As the Earth fleet and the ground defending Reach were being destroyed the Master Chief managed to return to the Pillar of Autumn, and the ship fled from Reach following a seemingly random course as per the Cole Protocol.

Upon coming out of hyperspace, the Pillar of Autumn was attacked by the Covenant and crash landed on Installation 04, called Halo by the Covenant. In the midst of fighting the Covenant, it was discovered that Halo was a ring-shaped construct created by the Forerunners as a last line of defense against a alien scourge called The Flood, which was released at some point by either the Forerunners or their legacy; a majority of the Covenant and UNSC troops who landed on Halo were infected by The Flood. Keyes and a small group of Marines were the first humans to encounter the Covenant-released Flood; Keyes was later absorbed by the Flood, soon after which he died. On behalf of the installation's caretaker 343 Guilty Spark the Master Chief was then responsible for retrieving the Index, a device which would activate Halo and wipe out the Flood... By destroying all life within a large radius, essentially starving The Flood to death; its activation would also trigger the other six Installations, which would wipe the entire galaxy clean of sentient life. Cortana's timely intervention prevented Halo's activation, and the two decided to destroy Halo itself. Fighting off Covenant, Flood and Forerunner Sentinels, the Chief made his way back to the Pillar of Autumn and using the ship's fusion reactor core to trigger a explosion, destroyed Halo, crippling the Covenant occupation forces led by the future Arbiter that had destroyed Reach and pursued the Pillar of Autumn.

First Strike

The Master Chief, along with the few UNSC personnel who survived Halo, managed to capture a Covenant command cruiser and return to Reach to contact Earth's High Command. At Reach, the Master Chief discovers that the Covenant have not eradicated the planet's biosphere the way they normally do, and that a few other Spartans are still alive. He retrieves them, as well as Dr. Catherine Halsey, the originator of the Spartan project.

The Spartans attack a Covenant space station, the Unyielding Hierophant, which is being used as a staging area for an attack on Earth. By the end of the novel, the only other remaining Halo survivor is Sergeant Avery Johnson; furthermore, only four of the original Spartans are in active service: Linda (who died during the Reach space op but was later revived), Will, Fred, and John. Kelly-87 is still alive but has been kidnapped by Dr. Halsey for purposes unknown.

Halo 2

Upon arriving back at Earth, the Chief's Mark V MJOLNIR armor was replaced by the new Mark VI model. He attended a brief awards ceremony aboard the station, which was interrupted by a Covenant invasion force. The Covenant boarded the Cairo, but were repellled by the Master Chief and the UNSC troops. He destroyed one of their ships with their own bomb intended to destroy the Cairo, and reached the InAmberClad which desceneded to New Mombasa to combat Covenant landing troops. He boarded and destroyed a Scarab with the assistance of a small squad of Marines. As the Covenent departed using a slip Space Jump within the city, the InAmberClad followed them to a new Halo designated Delta Halo. On Delta Halo, he fought and killed the High Prophet of Regret.

The Chief was then captured by the Gravemind after barely escaping from the High Prophet's main temple and met his Covenant Elite counterpart, the Arbiter. The Gravemind had a secret agenda and sent the Chief to infilitrate High Charity to stop the Prophets activation of Halo, while the Arbiter went to also try and stop Tartarus from activating the ring.

The Master Chief followed the High Prophet to a Forerunner ship and managed to board it before it embarks for the Ark which is presumed to be on Earth. Cortana remained on High Charity to detonate the InAmberClad in case Delta Halo was activated. Upon arriving in the Solar System, Spartan-117 informed the UNSC defending Earth that he was "finishing this fight."

Miscellany

He is voiced by Steve Downes in the video game series.

External links

• The Master Chief's profile at Bungie.org.
• Master Chief John-117 at the Halo library.
• The Halo Wiki